Since St. Louis gets many of its ideas, both good and bad, from Chicago, we can expect that a similar strategy is being deployed here. It does appear that here in St. Louis, public schools continue to be discussed as targets for potential closing in some neighborhoods, while charter school advocates continue to push opening of new schools, many of which will be even smaller than the schools to be closed.

And to understand more, we could read the entire document, but the Chicago Tribune, which has long backed the top-down reform model, has not released it in its entirety.

BOULDER, CO (December 6, 2012) – Several recent reports, including one from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, have found that charter schools generally under-enroll special education students when compared to conventional public schools. A new report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education, however, asserts that charter schools’ special education rates are much closer to those of district public schools than is described by these other recent reports.

A review of that new report concludes that, even though it was touted as reaching different conclusions – more favorable to charter schools – than past research, in fact the results are very much consistent. It confirms that charter schools are systematically under-enrolling students with special needs. READ MORE

Sunday, December 2, 2012

New York Times

"....Yet across the country, companies have been doing just that. And the giveaways are adding up to a gigantic bill for taxpayers.

A Times investigation has examined and tallied thousands of local incentives granted nationwide and has found that states, counties and cities are giving up more than $80 billion each year to companies. The beneficiaries come from virtually every corner of the corporate world, encompassing oil and coal conglomerates, technology and entertainment companies, banks and big-box retail chains.....

The cost of the awards is certainly far higher. A full accounting, The Times discovered, is not possible because the incentives are granted by thousands of government agencies and officials, and many do not know the value of all their awards. Nor do they know if the money was worth it because they rarely track how many jobs are created"

Thursday, November 29, 2012

"Though El Salvador’s national budget for education is dwarfed by that of United States, the investment in public education has been steadily increasing with the 2009 presidential victory of the leftist party, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), which during the civil war fought against a repressive, US-backed government. With FMLN leaders at the helm of several key cabinets, including health and education, and a slight legislative advantage over the right-wing parties, social investment has increased significantly across the board.

The national education budget has risen from $707 million in 2011 to nearly $828 million in 2012, with a proposed increase to $882 million for 2013. Union leaders like Manuel Mira emphasize the broader social and political impacts of this investment. “Education is a necessity for a country's growth and democracy. To be able to read and write gives a person the tools to be independent, to be able to be free,” he says. “A person can analyze the reality to be able to be an actor and not just a subject in the processes of change.”

Monday, November 19, 2012

With the election behind us, it is time for the Obama administration to step back from its education policy and access whether its foundation is sound and supported by evidence. It is a moment to summon the courage to change course.

We have had wars on drugs, poverty and terrorism. Now, depending on perspective, we have a war either for or on education. Certainly, many educators feel under siege. Popular slogans like, “Whatever it takes,” sound like battle cries. This brings to mind the documentary film, “The Fog of War,” as a metaphor for education reform.... READ MORE

His name isn't Adelson or Koch, but he's spending millions on politics, hoping to roll back taxes and reform education.

Liberals who suspect that wealthy businessmen and political masterminds are colluding to hijack democracy might have fainted had they walked into the St. Regis hotel's lobby restaurant in New York the other day. There was Rex Sinquefield, a deep-pocketed St. Louis, Mo., native and big-time political donor, sitting across from the Republican Rasputin himself, Karl Rove. The not-so-vast right-wing conspiracy in plain public view.

Mr. Sinquefield, an index-fund pioneer, has not drawn the fear and loathing that liberals devote to the billionaire Koch brothers and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. Oh, Bloomberg News referred to him as "a new American oligarch," and the New York Times recently painted an ominous portrait of him as "perhaps the most influential private citizen in the state." But no one has picketed his home, Mr. Sinquefield says, or harassed his guests. At least not yet.

He is nonetheless one of the nation's biggest conservative donors in a political year when they are much in the spotlight. So it seems like a good moment to meet one of these princes of alleged darkness in person and see the conspiracy from the inside. It turns out the inside looks a lot like it does from the outside. At age 67, Rex Sinquefield is a successful businessman and conservative who is passionate about his country and wants to turn its policies in a more prosperous direction. He'll even spend lots of his own money to do it. READ MORE

Monday, November 5, 2012

Another of the effects of the corporate reform agenda, the whitening (and youth-ing) of the education labor force - at least to the extent that these folks stay in the profession for very long. A response to job crises among MBA and recent high-achieving college graduates: seek employment in sectors historically left to others?

"Chicago is not the only place where Education Reform, Inc. is quickly reshaping the teaching force into one that is fresher and more innovative younger and whiter. In urban areas across the country, middle-aged, middle class African American teachers are being pushed out to make room for the flavor of the day: vanilla."READ MORE...
From: edushyster2012
http://edushyster.com/

Friday, November 2, 2012

Educational apartheid in Chicago and the black teachers revolt of the 1960′s

Bob Simpson is a Social Media/Writer at Webtrax Studio, Studied Urban Education at Catholic University of America, and is a regular blogger at “The Bobbosphere.

”Black teachers did fight hard in Chicago, a city with a violent racial history that included a dangerously repressive political machine and screaming white supremacist mobs. Confronting Chicago’s educational apartheid policies also meant risking one’s career, no small thing, especially for those to whom that teaching position represented the first time a family member had graduated from college and emerged from Jim Crow enforced poverty. READ MORE

Monday, October 29, 2012

An excerpt below, about the underlying paradox of TFA - pushing directly and indirectly toward privatization of schools, and its alumni now involved in political campaigns pushing those agendas locally and nationally, while it also happens to be in part publicly-funded. (It is of course also super-funded by corporate donors and foundations). Should publicly-funded entities be pushing policies that seek to erode public education? Any political accountability or oversight from the public?

.....Because it counts on federal grants and local contracts—in sum, $43 million in 2011—TFA has to be involved in some amount of political advocacy. LEE voicedindirect opposition to TFA skeptic and Wendy Kopp persona non grata Linda Darling-Hammond when she was being considered as Obama’s Secretary of Education. In the case of Kira Orange-Jones, TFA’s executive director in Louisiana who was recently elected to the board that oversees New Orleans’ Recovery School District and approves TFA’s contract, TFA is in a position to influence its own contract from both sides.

LEE adds a new dimension to TFA’s growing empire. A selective crowd of high-achieving college graduates is primed to take over the leadership of America’s schools. This summer’s elections for Nashville’s school board, which featured a race between TFA alums, could be a preview of intra-family rivalries to come. (The winner, Elissa Kim, is TFA’s chief admissions officer and garnered near-record donations for her campaign.) And while LEE may be policy-neutral, it isn’t hard to imagine the massive proliferation of Michelle Rhees and, in turn, the entrenchment of education reform geared toward money-soaked charter expansion, “new unionism,” and test-based student achievement. In other words, what began—and is still viewed by many—as an apolitical service corps could be the Trojan horse of the privatization of public education.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

What is it about public schools that is now attracting so much money from conservative donors? There are similar patterns in Missouri, at least at the local level, and at least before elections were done away with.

Why Do Some of America's Wealthiest Individuals Have Fingers in Louisiana's Education System? Matthew Cunningham-Cook October 17, 2012
"Last fall, a coterie of extremely wealthy billionaires, among them New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, turned the races for unpaid positions on the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) into some of themost expensivein the state’s history. Seven pro-education “reform” candidates for the BESE outraised eight candidates endorsed by the teacher’s unions by $2,386,768 to $199,878, a ratio of nearly twelve to one. In just one of these races, the executive director of Teach for America Greater New Orleans-Louisiana Delta, Kira Orange Jones, outspent attorney Louella Givens, who was endorsed by the state’s main teacher’s unions, by more than thirty-four to one: $472,382 to $13,815." READ MORE....

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

"As the Missouri State Board of Education unanimously voted Tuesday to upgrade St. Louis Public Schools from unaccredited status, members made it clear they were far from changing the district’s governance back to an elected board."

Among the quotes worthy of a grimace (from State Board chair Herschend, who is from Branson, Missouri) “The local elected board is what got the school district in trouble in the first place,” State Board President Peter Herschend said."

By Cheryl Scott Williams, in Education Week... But the tone, language, and proposals for change currently articulated by the most prominent "reformers" at the national level reveal both a lack of knowledge and experience of the daily realities of even the most successful public schools and a total lack of respect for the professionals now working in public education. ANew York Times articleby Michael Winerip last year providedinsight into the genesis of the worldview of these "reformers." It was chilling in its revelation of our country's movement toward endowing decisionmaking by only a privileged ruling class of leaders whose experience in no way reflects the background or upbringing of the majority of Americans.READ MORE

Monday, October 15, 2012

Ever since the latest report card for the St. Louis Public Schools showed they have enough points to earn provisional accreditation, Superintendent Kelvin Adams has rarely passed up an opportunity to push for the upgrade.

Kelvin Adams

“Seven points equals accreditation,” Adams said in August after the district’s annual progress report under the Missouri School Improvement Plan was released. “My understanding from reading the policy and the APR guidelines was that seven points equal provisional accreditation — period.”

Chris Nicastro, Missouri’s commissioner of elementary and secondary education, countered that what the state is looking for is not a particular number but evidence that any growth in student achievement can be sustained over a period of time, at least three years... READ MORE, it's a great piece...

Friday, October 12, 2012

"You know, I work in a Wal-Mart warehouse in Elwood, Illinois. The conditions are terrible—a lot of safety issues. We have broken equipment that was not getting repaired. They just—they push us to work at a rate that makes it even more unsafe. You know, we finally just had enough, and we started to organize. We started a petition, just asking for some basic rights. And our managers refused to take it. So, that was kind of the final straw. We decided that was it, and we walked out that day."And why then does the Walton (Walmart) foundation give so much money to Teach for America? Is there a connection here?

Classroom Teachers: St. Louis Public Schools is looking for energetic, motivated people who love working with children. We need certificated teachers in all subject areas pre-school through grade 12 and counselors. Requirements: Bachelor’s Degree or higher andMissouri Certification or Proof of Eligibility for Certification. Terms of Employment: Ten-month basis. Starting salary is $37,500.00.Applicants will receive salaries in conjunction with their degree and experience.

Anschutz bankrolls ALEC and ALEC member groups. In 2010, The Anschutz Foundation, gave ALEC $10,000 and his Union Pacific firm was an ALEC sponsor the following year. The Foundation fundedthree ALEC members who sat on the ALEC Education Task Force which approved the Parent Trigger Proposal: The Independence Institute, Center for Education Reform, and Pacific Research Institute.

Anschutz has also supported the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which backs legislation designed to cripple unions; the Discovery Institute, which seeks to get creation "science" accepted in public schools; and the Mission America Foundation, whose president considers homosexuality to be a "deviance." He also owns the conservative magazine, the Weekly Standard.

Walden Media was one of the producers of the pro-charter documentary film "Waiting for 'Superman'." This film was criticized by Diane Ravitch as propaganda and as "a powerful weapon on behalf of those championing the 'free market' and privatization."

The non-profit 'reform' organization Stand for Children spent a lot of money to influence Illinois legislators, changing the threshold needed to strike by public unions to 75%. Then, with the mayor's support, they moved to implement a number of measures that, according to CTU, run contrary to good teaching. See Stand for Children director Jonah Edelman brag about having outsmarted the unions on this video. So, now post-strike, with significant public support for the teachers' unions, what has been gained by this heavily funded attempt to undermine teachers' unions?

Monday, September 17, 2012

Those opposed: a slight majority (52%) white, a slight majority (52%) whose kids go to private schools. Still pretty close to even, but sort that out for us.... these folks with kids in private schools are opposed because...?

From Harold Myerson, The American Prospect "The chief takeaway from this poll is that the anti-union education-reform movement doesn’t extend to most parents of children in unionized public schools. So long as this movement persists in its anti-union jihad, even as America’s children become increasingly minority, education reform may condemn itself to remaining a movement of the white upper-middle class. The voting breakdown in the 2011 Washington, D.C., mayoral election between the defeated incumbent Adrian Fenty, who, with overwhelming white establishment support, backed school chief Michelle Rhee in her war on the city’s teachers’ union, and the victorious challenger Vincent Gray, who won a clear majority of black voters, tells the same story as that in this poll of Chicago voters. Confined by its ideological suppositions to the white professional ghetto, the education-reform movement, powerful though it may be, will repeatedly subvert itself in its efforts to transform America’s schools."

Editorial: State should honor St. Louis accreditation request

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When discussing the process by which the state accredits, or unaccredits, public schools in Missouri, Chad Beffa uses a war analogy.

"There is no exit strategy," Mr. Beffa says.

Mr. Beffa is one of the elected members of the board that used to oversee the St. Louis Public Schools. Since 2007, when the schools lost state accreditation and a Special Administrative Board was appointed to take over, the elected board has been mostly toothless.

WHO WE ARE

We are independent researchers, including undergraduate and graduate students and faculty. We carry out our research under the oversight of the Washington University Human Subjects Review Board. However, we do not represent Washington University and are not associated with the various official activities of the university in relationship to public schools. In addition, while we are in dialogue with many people in the district, we do not represent the St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS). For more information, write the project coordinator, Bret Gustafson (gustafson [at] wustl.edu).